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strange people

I was intending to post something supremely thoughtful on the David Kahn era this coming weekend. But before I could get my thoughts/act together, Henry posted a piece on Truehoop which was essentially what I was intending to say. Its worth reading in full, but the gist of it, to my eyes, was this: David Kahn was a sub-mediocre general manager with a weird, abrasive personality. He made one very great move (trading up to draft Ricky Rubio), one spectacularly bad one (drafting Jonny Flynn over Stephen Curry) and a bunch that shade somewhere to the wrong side of the middle. He restored the team to fiscal sanity, but drafted exceptionally poorly. He wooed two of the team’s three best players from overseas, but mortally alienated its only bona fide superstar. He hired Rick Adelman, but he also hired Kurt Rambis. He signed AK; he signed Darko. Like I said, sub-mediocre. But the reason he is considered to be monumentally bad is because he is such a strange dude. Here’s Henry:

All of which is to say I have glimpsed Kahn’s odd, bitter personality. I can guess why his various stops have been short, and why he has been in the business for a long time without developing many allies. I join a big crowd in not crying for Kahn today.

So yup, call him an iconoclastic crank who’s short of friends and long on big, pompous mistakes.

Update: In case you are interested, here is Kahn’s “exit interview” with Jerry Zgoda in the STrib. By now, Kahn’s mode has become pretty predictable: Kahn talks up the Wolves fortunes, takes partial responsibility for his own failures while subtly shifting blame to Taylor and McHale. Check out this last bit though:

Q. Why did you say [Kevin Love] needs to win back the respect of his teammates?A. I think there’s some work for him to be done in terms of, he didn’t play very much this year, right? And I think there’s a void there because of that. Many of those guys really fought their way back from injury, sometimes multiple injuries. He had two broken hands. He came back once, didn’t play well, broke his hand again and then decided to have his knee done at the end of the year when the pain was such. I think he has some work to in the locker room and I believe he will. I certainly don’t want that to come across negatively. I believe he will and I believe he’s on the right path.

This is just classic Kahn, the exact stuff that earns him his reputation. Subtly casting aspersions on Love’s toughness and desire to play–which, while Love may not always be an ideal teammate, I think its ridiculous to malign those particular qualities in him–while attemping to frame it as some act of generosity and mentorship on his own part. Guy, I realize that you don’t want that “to come off negatively” but you just suggested that your best player has lost the respect of his teammates by not coming back from an injury. Honestly, how do you expect that to come off? You could write this off as a slightly bitter farewell by a guy who just lost his job–if it didn’t conform so closely to the patterns Kahn has established throughout his tenure.